RPDR Season Six

04/21/2014

Yes, I've been watching Season Six, and yes, I've been getting into it. I don't have the free time this year that I had last year, which is why I haven't been recapping--sorry, I miss it too! My pick-for-the-win has been BenDeLaCreme from the beginning, and I'm still rooting hard for her, though I think we can all agree that this season is clever Bianca's to lose, and that if they spun off "Bianca Del Rio's School for Girls," we would all watch the shit out of that. I'm totally endeared by Joslyn (she's 100% my Miss Congeniality pick), I'm begrudgingly enjoying Adore more and more each week, and I swing back and forth hard on how much I like Courtney. I've liked Darienne from the start, and I recognize and sympathize with the phenomenon of hangry-shade.

And I love my Atlanta queen, Trinity K. Bonet. I only wanted one thing out of Season Six--for Atlanta to send a queen, and for that queen to make it past the Snatch Game--and Trinity made good! She's a great live performer (if you're in Atlanta, catch her Thursday nights at Burkhart's, among other places), and you all saw for yourselves how she slays a lip sync.

So anyway, I assembled a supercut of Trinity's time on RuPaul's Drag Race!

I've also been fantasy-casting Season Seven. My top pick from Atlanta will be a familiar name to loyal readers of this blog: the incomparable Evah Destruction. This time last year, I began writing about Evah as an unbiased local fan: we’d never spoken before; I didn’t know her age or boy-name or personal history; all I did know was how brilliant Evah was on-stage, every time I watched her perform. This year, though, my endorsement is totally biased: Evah has turned into a dear friend, and recently, we've also become video collaborateurs. She and I filmed her painting process for a hyperspeed paint video; here's what it takes to turn handsome Alex into gorgeous Evah.

Finally, here are some parting GIFs: Trinity's stone-cold reaction shots have been slaying me all season. Three of my favorites:

"Really."

#SideEye

I don't know why this last one cracks me up so hard, but it's kind of perfect, right? (Party.)

12/08/2013

I'm going to assemble an in-depth first look at the Season Six cast for you, with links and factoids and tidbits to help you choose your early favorites, but for now, let's look at the entire cast of RuPaul's Drag Race Season Six, presented alphabetically. All my love to the RuPaul's Drag Race subreddit, who helped ID some of the queens whose identities hadn't leaked. Here are your 2014 Racing Queens:

09/18/2013

So, The Dilettwat's blog has taken a hiatus. You figured it out long before I did. May the drag goddesses bless you, people who have been asking whether I've fallen off the face of the planet.

Why the sudden quiet? Truly, we're in the off-season: Season Six has wrapped filming, and its journey has moved on to the editing room. These days, story producers are having coffee and sitting in office chairs, editing the shade-gong sound effects over innocuous conversations and deciding who we'll love (and who we'll love-to-hate) come January. Right now, editors are choosing next year’s “Bitch I am from Chicago!” and “I’ve had it! Officially!” tag lines; they’re choosing which snips and moments of each queen’s experience on RuPaul’s Drag Race will shape her personal narrative for the season. It's exciting, in its own super-meta way--filming is over, but the writing of The Story of Season Six has just begun.

Season Six's Trinity Bonet of Atlanta, giving us an eight-count of Beyonce at Burkhart's

But here, back in actual-reality, all the Season Six queens returned home months ago. While the internet has collectively clocked 10 or 12 (give or take) of next season's queens, the ones who flew under the radar are back home too, trying to decide whether they're proud of themselves for keeping the secret, or simply offended that nobody noticed they were missing during Drag Race Filming Season. It's safe to say that all the Season Six queens are living in interesting times these days, but from my spectator-and-fan's perspective, the whole affair has entered the quietest days of the annual RuPaul's Drag Race production cycle.

We all bide our time in different ways.

As for me? The last few months have been an immersion in Atlanta drag. I haven’t been writing about it, not for lack of trying, but when I attempt to write about people I’ve come to know personally, everything comes out either sycophantic or shady. I accomplish plenty of both without also blogging about it, thanks, so while I’ve been making brilliant new friends and taking in some amazing drag lately, this space has gone quiet.

I promise, I’m going somewhere with this retrospection: this time last year, I was obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race, but had not yet made the jump from drag-on-television to drag-in-real-life. From my couch, I could gaze adoringly at drag queens without ever making eye contact; I could learn the difference between a kiki and a kaikai without using them in conversation. In other words, I was falling in love with drag, but the concept of Real Life Drag Queens still intimidated the hell out of me.

Trust: it's cute on TV, but this moment would be terrifying in person, right?

Just last November, I went to my first-ever drag show, the Miss Originality pageant, because Sharon Needles had been booked to judge and perform. I’d give anything to relive that night, knowing everything (and everybody) I do now--Atlanta's talent turned out a hell of an evening, one that I didn’t fully appreciate because I was still ignorant to the local scene. I wouldn’t know it yet, but that night would be my first time seeing a double-handful of Atlanta performers who have since become my favorite drag queens; a few months after the show, I’d finally start to pair my memories of clever performances with more-recently-learned names and mugs. That night would also be my first visit to The Jungle, my favorite drag bar; these days, I’m a regular, but last November, I was a stranger to everybody. I could kick myself now, for having only had eyes for Sharon that night--talk about a fucking dilettante.

Pictured: hugging a shitfaced drag queen for the very first time in my life. Weird now, right?

To take this story full-circle: this coming Friday night, in the very same room at The Jungle where I first saw Sharon (and errbody else), The Other Show is hosting Alaska Thunderfuck. Thank heavens I’m not daunted by Actual Living Drag Queens anymore, that I’m completely at-home at the Jungle on a Friday night now: if you know me in person, you know I live for The Other Show; if you were reading this blog during Season Five, you know I live for Alaska. Together, on the same stage? Hold me.

So anyway. My apologies for the quiet lately--I've been eyeballs-deep in drag, but not in a way that's led to my blogging every minute of it. I'll try aiming for the "Publish" button more often.

PS - It’s another post (coming early next week, I swear), but I have a new hobby, too. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an F, it rhymes with “whoa queen," and it's exactly what you think.

06/17/2013

Note: this post has been modified with additional information as of 6/20. Changes are in italics.

Season Six is filming right now. It's thrilling to think: at this moment, while I type, while you read, the girls of Season Six might be actually filming the Snatch Game right now. Or two of them might be lip-synching for their lives tonight. Some petty squabble that will lead to this season's Bitch-I-am-from-CHICAGO-this-is-not-RuPaul's-Best-Friend-Race-I-have-had-it-OFFICIALLY catchphrase? Could be happening at this moment.

I've been combing the internet for weeks, making a spreadsheet of every single rumored queen mentioned by anybody, anywhere. By the time I decided it was time to write this post, I'd assembled a list of over sixty queens who were confirmed as having applied, and that's not counting any Atlanta queens. Then, one by one, I went down my list and researched them all. Most were easy to cross off the list: when you're posting Vines from gigs and Instagrams from your Gemini birthday party, you're not simultaneously filming RuPaul's Drag Race. Some were harder, particularly queens who were never very active on social media to begin with. And some? A few, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing splashed across promos this fall, and in the werkroom come January.

Special shout-out, of course, to the RuPaul's Drag Racesubreddit, which continues to be my favorite place to geek all the way out about Drag Race--a solid half of my rumored-list came from there, and while I've now independently researched each queen I'm about to tell you about, many of them wouldn't be on my radar if it weren't for the efforts of the RPDR subreddit. Thanks, friends!

So, while the Season Six queens frantically groom their wigs, beat their mugs, and E-6000 their runway apparel, their local bars have quietly brought in special guest queens to fill in, their social media has turned silent or strange. Some of them might be busy or bluffing, but a few of them are probably not. Who are these missing queens? Let's look at the list.

Adore Delano

Hometown: Los Angeles, CAFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: Very, Very LikelyTo keep it short: Adore, aka Danny Noriega, lives on social media--she's that former American Idol contestant who nearly won last year's Facebook fan vote, and did win this year's. While she's normally actively online on a daily basis, she went completely silent on June 6. If there's anybody on this list that I feel certain made Season Six, it's Adore.

Bianca Del Rio

Hometown: New York, NYFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: LikelyThis one comes from an anonymous tip on Reddit, purportedly from somebody in the NYC drag scene, but it seems like a solid guess: she's Drag Race material, and while it appears that she's normally busy on social media, she's gone nearly silent--a Facebook change of profile pic and update from her movie project could absolutely have been made by somebody else.

Courtney Act

Hometown: West Hollywood, CA, by way of Sydney, AustraliaFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: Very LikelyThis is the queen that the internet is 100% convinced has been cast: after all, she oh-so-conveniently disappeared for a "trip to Africa" and hasn't surfaced since June 8, and she's only posted a single photo, which the internet immediately clocked: check out the side-by-side of her winter trip on Instagram and her "recent" Facebook photo.

On the other hand: I've also heard rumors that this is a double-bluff, that wherever she is, Courtney is not on RuPaul's Drag Race this season. I imagine we'll find out more details next time she finds access to the internet.

Darienne Lake

Hometown: Rochester, NYFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: Very LikelyThis is one where my obsessive spreadsheeting has hopefully paid off: though I haven't seen buzz about Darienne Lake since the Facebook fan vote, I put her on my list a few weeks ago, and now she appears to be missing. Her home bar, Rain Lounge, hosted Willam for Rochester Pride this weekend, and while she was originally billed as part of the show, it appears that she wasn't there after all. Yes, it's possible that her daytime life is putting her through it and she's disappeared from the scene for personal reasons, but my hunch is that she's in LA right now.

Gia Gunn

Hometown: Chicago, ILFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: LikelyLike Bianca Del Rio, this is via anonymous-rumor-mill chatter, this time from the Chicago queens. She dropped off social media the third week of May, but she was never very active on social media to begin with, so it's a tough call. For now, we're taking a ride with the Chicago kiki, and we'll see when she surfaces next.

Trinity Bonet

Hometown: Atlanta, GAFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: Very LikelyDid RuPaul grant my wish for an Atlanta queen? The third anonymous-rumor-mill cast-speculative is Trinity Bonet, who has been silent on social media since June 5. (Full disclosure, since she's an Atlanta queen: I don't know Trinity personally, and I haven't spoken directly with of her friends, though I have seen her perform a couple of times in the last several months.) This one, I'm hoping to pin down a bit more firmly: she's on-cast at Stars of the Century, a weekly Monday-night drag show, and I'm going tonight. If she's there, I'll wipe the egg from my face and cross her off this list, but I strongly doubt I'll be seeing her tonight.

Update 6/20: I went to the show, and it was great fun! However, as it happens, this Monday's show was a special annual event, and the cast was different from the regular performers. I'll keep my ear to the ground.

Ben Delacreme

Hometown: Seattle, WAFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: Possible Very, very likelyThis one feels like wishful thinking: they wouldn't really cast Jinkx's hilarious co-host and drag-queen-BFF Ben Delacreme the season after Jinkx won, right? After the Sharon-then-Alaska casting, though, all bets are off, and Jinkx was vocal in April and May about wanting to see Ben on RuPaul's Drag Race next season. If she's there, I'm already certain she'll be one of my favorites; Ben would be a joy to have on the show. She's been silent since June 6, but Seattle Pride is coming up June 28-29, and she's billed for multiple events that weekend. If nobody else has resurfaced by then, and she misses Seattle Pride too, I'd say we have a cast pick.

Update 6/20: Ben has been canceling Pride events. Alert Redditor Suzepie pointed me towards this June 22 event, where Ben was supposed to host, but has been replaced (yes, this is the punctuation) "due to an unexpected 'commitment'..." The write-up is by Michael Strangeways, who has appeared in the Monsoon Season video series and is presumably in the inner loop of the Seattle drag scene. 'Commitment' indeed. Can't wait to see you on Season Six, Ben!

Laganja Estranga

Hometown: Los Angeles, CAFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: PossibleVery LikelySo, let's be real: somebody else is enthusiastically running Laganja's Twitter account, right? It's recently switched from the first person to the third person, and her Facebook has been silent since June 11. With no upcoming gigs and plenty of internet buzz, she might just be smokin' the werkroom as we speak.

Hometown: New York City, NYFacebookTwitterLikelihood for Season Six: PossibleVery UnlikelyI've seen quite a lot of buzz about Miss Fame, and her social media has gone very spotty recently. If her Facebook is anything to go by, she's either gone quiet because she's filming RuPaul's Drag Race, or because she just got engaged. Congratulations either way!

Update 6/20: I've had a couple people familiar with her boy name/accounts tell me that she's not on Season Six. Alas!

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That's my list--so far. I've got a few other names I'm sitting on, because I'm still not sure what to make of them--mostly, queens who have definitely disappeared from social media since the first week of June, but who were also never very active on social media to begin with. There might be a Part Two to this post.

And, while we're at it, who's not filming? It seems safe to bet that, among hundreds of other queens, the Season Six cast will not include buzzed-about queens such as Rhea Litre, Mayhem Miller, Vicky Vox, Mahlae Balenciaga, Misty Eyez, Epiphany Get Paid (unless she's in the same version of Greece as Courtney's version of the Seychelles), or anybody from the Haus of Haunt. Take heart: there's always Season Seven.

If you have T, send it to me. If you want to be anonymous, you can email me at dilettwat@gmail.com, or else feel free to hit me up on Facebook or Twitter. Sorry for the gap in posting lately--I've got a few posts/projects cooking, but you've gotta let it cook, y'know? Anyway, sound off in the comments--if my list is correct, who will you be most-excited to see on RuPaul's Drag Race next season?